In general, the liquid crystal display device has a structure where the periphery of a liquid crystal panel is protected by a housing, the liquid crystal panel having liquid crystal sandwiched between two thin substrates on which members such as an alignment films and electrodes are formed, and the panel having functional films such as a light guide plate, a polarizer, and further an anti-glare film and an anti-reflection film piled in layers. On the display surface of the liquid crystal panel, a thin functional film is in an exposed state and, therefore, is vulnerable to external impact. When impact is applied to the liquid crystal panel, the liquid crystal panel may be destroyed, or alignment of the liquid crystals may become disordered and alignment defects may occur, resulting in deterioration of the display properties. Therefore, when conveying, transporting, or storing the liquid crystal display device and, further, when using the liquid crystal display device, impact resistance is required for the liquid crystal display device.
To cope with the foregoing problem, there has been proposed a technique which comprises placing a front substrate on the front surface of the liquid crystal panel, which protects the liquid crystal panel from the external impact. In this case, if an air layer is interposed between the liquid crystal panel and the front substrate, especially in a bright outdoor environment, light is reflected at the interface with the air layer and visibility is lowered.
Accordingly, there has been proposed a technique to simultaneously improve reliability against the external impact and outdoor visibility by adhering a protective member, the member comprising a toughened substrate such as toughened glass, and a low reflection layer formed on the toughened substrate to the front surface of the liquid crystal panel with an intermediate adhesive layer having a refractive index similar to those of the polarizer of the liquid crystal panel and the toughened substrate as the protective member (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).